ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s women climbers Naila Kiani and Nadia Azad etched their names in history when on Tuesday they successfully summited Mount Lhotse (8,516m), the fourth-highest mountain in the world.
Situated at the border of Tibet and Nepal, Lhotse is unique in that it is climbed from virtually the same route as Mount Everest.
Naila was the first of the two female mountaineers to ascend Lhotse.
“With this accomplishment, she has become the first Pakistani woman to climb the peak [Mount Lhotse] and the country’s fastest woman to ascend six peaks higher than 8,000 metres”, Secretary Alpine Club of Pakistan Karrar Haidri said in a statement.
Nadia Azad, a British Pakistani mountaineer followed in the footsteps of compatriot Naila, becoming the second Pakistani woman to summit Lhotse.
According to Haidri, Nadia along with Pemba Chhiri sherpa of Imagine Nepal reached at the top the peak at 11:00 am today (Tuesday).
Earlier on Sunday, Naila ascended Mt Everest (8848m), the world’s tallest peak. A mother of two kids, Kiani is a Dubai-based Pakistani banker and an amateur boxer. She first rose to prominence after images of her wedding shoot at K2 Base Camp in 2018 circulated on social media.
She summited Gasherbrum-II (8,035m) in 2021, Gasherbrum-I (8,068m), K2 (8611) in July 2022 and Annapurna (8,091m) in 2023. She had climbed K2, the world’s second tallest peak shortly after Samina Baig, who was the first Pakistani woman to achieve the feat.
Another female British Nadia, who is a member of Imagine Nepal’s Annapurna Expedition Team had also successfully summited Everest on Sunday. She had climbed Annapurna in April. She also plans to embark on a daring expedition to Pakistan in June-July, aiming to summit all five 8,000m peaks in the country.
Pakistan’s ace climber, Sajid Ali Sadpara, also made history on Sunday by climbing Everest solo without using supplemental oxygen and taking personal sherpa assistance.
